Thursday, May 21, 2009

Barack Obama And George W. Bush: Partners In Torture

Now that the first few months of Barack Obama's administration has passed, one thing is becoming exceedingly clear. By covering up the torture of terror suspects under the Bush administration, by choosing not to hold anyone responsible for those crimes, and by continuing many of the same despicable practices, Barack Obama has now become George W. Bush's partner in torture and war crimes.

This is not what a lot of voters were expecting. After all, wasn't it Obama who promised that he would do away with the "military commissions" that denied almost all rights to terror suspects?

The proposed changes to the military commissions are merely cosmetic and do not erase the spectacle of the Department of Defense presiding over trials where coerced statements and accusations by unnamed accusers are permitted, and where detainees are not permitted to speak about their torture at the hands of the CIA or the military. Military commissions unfairly deprive detainees of meaningful defense resources. This "due process light" is particularly indefensible in death penalty cases.

Not only that, but President Obama is thinking of going farther than George W. Bush even did. Obama is actually considering a “preventive detention” system that would establish a "legal basis" for the U.S. to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely who are deemed a threat to national security but "cannot be tried".

That means locking someone up, throwing away the key and never, ever giving them a trial.

How American!

This comes on the heels of Obama's announcement that he is going to resist the release of any more torture photos.

The media is making a big deal out of the fact that Obama is changing some of the techniques and is planning to close Guantanamo Bay, but what about all the other secret prisons the U.S. has around the world?

Is Obama going to close those?

No.

The truth is that Obama is not doing the things that the American people voted him in to do.

If you look at what this administration is doing issue by issue, the reality is that this might as well be the third Bush administration. The media wants us to believe that things have changed, but the truth is that we are still headed on the exact same course.

Shame on Obama and shame on America if we do not demand an end to this torture.